Víctor José

Victor is 65 years old. He is married and is the father of two children. He is retired, and with some savings he began his business, a store that sells paints, solvents, and accessories for finishing. He has equipment to make mixtures and obtain more tones and new colors. He has the help of two direct employees, and he enjoys recognition in different towns and metal-working shops in the region because of his specialty of paints for vehicles. He began his business a year ago and he works from Monday to Saturday from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm. Victor did not have experience in this type of business, but he took advantage of the knowledge of his employees, who have been teaching him the different techniques and concepts needed. Now he is applying for the loan with the goal of investing it in the purchase of stock (paints, solvents) and buying fixed assets (mixing equipment). With this he will be able to offer his customers a greater variety of tones and colors and will provide better quality service, with which he will be able to continue being recognized, and this will be reflected in an increase in his sales and his income, which will allow him to position himself in the market and be more competitive. Victor dreams of setting up other branches in other towns in the region and generating more opportunities for employment. This will help him to improve the living conditions of his family and enjoy a prosperous and stable future.

Additional Information

More information about this loan

By funding this loan, you are promoting entrepreneurship in remote regions, including areas recovering from guerilla warfare in Colombia, and helping to reverse the rural exodus which occurred in the past decades when a the rural population fled their countryside homes for the safer cities.

This Kiva loan was created by Kiva's field partner Interactuar specifically for Kiva funding, in an effort to reach more borrowers in rural areas. Most of the Interactuar's lending operations are focused in urban parts of Medellin. But this loan product is designed to provide working capital to riskier agricultural businesses who have been traditionally excluded from the finance sector.

Important Information

This loan is structured on Kiva as a bullet loan, which means a single payment is required at the end of the loan term. By Colombian law, Kiva's partner Interactuar is required to offer borrowers loans with a variable interest rate that fluctuates with the market rate. Because fixed monthly payments are applied first to interest and then to principal, Interactuar is unable to predict upfront what portion of each repayment would go towards the loan principal. This creates a challenge with Kiva's system, which doesn't allow for unpredictable principal payments, and can result in some Interactuar clients appearing falsely delinquent. To remedy this, the loan has an end-of-term repayment plan on Kiva, but the borrower will continue scheduled monthly repayments to Interactuar, who will then pass along the principal amount to Kiva lenders. This means that you may see repayments made on this loan throughout the repayment term, as opposed to receiving repayment in full at the end of the loan term.